Emmy, in progress

I have been in DC for about a month, and yesterday I experienced my first earthquake. I didn't even know they made earthquakes on the east coast; shows how much I pay attention to nothing.

I have decided that they really aren't my thing. Give me a tornado or a flood and my Tennessee instincts will tell me what to do, but this earthquake business is a whole different level of terror - namely because I am residing in the nation's capital and immediately thought that it was a terrorist attack. For a solid 15 seconds I was convinced that my office on the 11th floor of a 12 story building was going to collapse. It is entirely too disconcerting to feel a building of such stature shake and sway as if it were nothing other than a flimsy tree branch.

My best friend texted me a little later with her condolences. "This just hasn't been your year!"

Wow, I hadn't thought of it like that.

I have had one extremely fortunate opportunity to move and to start a life in Washington, DC - but oh, what I have gone through to get to this point! I should have taken it as a bad omen when I woke up on January 1 to learn that my little brother had totaled my car. Not that that mattered anyhow since I was bedridden for about a week and a half - flu, you know. Don't stand in the rain for hours on New Year's Eve without a coat - to some that is common sense, but no need to rub it in. I've learned my lesson.

For the first three months I was without a car and a job and stuck in suburbia. Sometimes I would go an entire day without speaking to another human, what with friends and boyfriends being in school and all. Finally, I was able to get a new vehicle (a pick-up truck - I looked like an ass when I drove it around town), but it got me where I needed to go and that is all that matters. I began working as a bank teller, but if everything went smoothly there then it wouldn't be worth mentioning. I was robbed while at work. Perhaps it would be even more effective if I added that this particular branch had been open for over 40 years and had never before been (robbed).
Seriously, third photo - that is my head.
Oh, and then my little brother also totaled the beloved pick-up truck. Why do I continue to let him borrow my vehicles?! Put that one on me.

So I left Tennessee and moved to DC...and BOOM, earthquake!

I hesitate to tempt fate by provoking the universe, but you can bet big money that I will be on my guard for the next four months.

8/25/2011 Post Script: Hurricane Watch.
I am such a jinx.